/ 


62 d Congress 
2d Session 


I 


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 


/ Document 
\ No. 863 


NEW CONSTITUTION FOR OHIO 


AN EXPLANATION OF THE WORK OF 
OHIO’S FOURTH CONSTITUTIONAL CON¬ 
VENTION BY THE PRESIDENT, HON. 
HERBERT S. BIGELOW :: :: :: 






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July 5, 1912.—Ordered to be printed 


WASHINGTON ' 
1912 " 


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A NEW CONSTITUTION FOR OHIO. 


The recasting of the political institutions of America—this is what 
is coming out of the progressive movement of our times. 

A stage-coach government has lasted way into these days of the 
wireless message and the aeroplane. But the time for readjustment 
has come. We are bringing our political institutions up to date. 

The greatest commercial asset a State can have is an honest, 
efficient, and progressive government. Such a government contri¬ 
butes to the moral no less than to the material well-being of a com¬ 
monwealth. The demand for such a government is the token of a 
great awakening that has come to the American people. In no State 
is there greater evidence of this awakening than in the State of Ohio 
at the present time. 

The people of Ohio are now engaged in making over the fundamental 
law of the State. For the first five months of this year a constitu¬ 
tional convention has been at work at this task. This convention 
has recommended 42 amendments to the State constitution. The 
people are to vote upon these amendments at a special election the 
3d day of September. The following is a facsimile of the ballot to be 
used at this election: 

Official Ballot. 

Special election, Tuesday, September 3, 1912. 

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. 

(First column.) 

To vote for any amendment place a cross mark in the blank space to the left of the 
word “Yes” opposite the title of such amendment. 

To vote aqainst any amendment place a cross mark in the blank space to the left of 
the word “No” opposite the title of such amendment. 



Yes. 

Article I, section 5. 

Reform in civil-jury system. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article I, section 9. 

Abolition of capital punishment. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article I, section 10. 

Depositions by State and comment on failure of accused to testify 

in criminal cases. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article I, section 16. 

Suits against the State. 


No. 


3 
























4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 


A NEW CONSTITUTION FOR OHIO 


) 

Yes. 

Article I, section 19a. 

Damage for wrongful death. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article II, section 1, la, lb, lc, Id, le, If, lg. 

Initiative and referendum. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article II, section 8. 

Investigations by each house of general assembly. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article II, section 16. 

Limiting veto power of governor. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article II, section 33. 

Mechanics’ and builders’ liens. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article II, section 34. 

Welfare of employees. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article II, section 35. 

Workmen’s compensation. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article II, section 36. 

Conservation of natural resources. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article II, section 37. 

Eight-hour day on public works. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article II, section 38. 

Removal of officials. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article II, section 39, 

Regulating expert testimony in criminal trials. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article II, section 40. 

Registering and warranting land titles. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article II, section 41. 

Abolishing prison contract labor. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article III, section 8. 

Limiting power of general assembly in extra sessions. 


No. 







































































19 

20 

21 

22 

23 

24 

25 

26 

27 

28 

29 

30 

31 


A NEW CONSTITUTION FOR OHIO. 


5 




Yes. 

Article TV, sections 1, 2, and 6. 


No. 

Change in judicial system. 


Yes. 

Article IV, sections 3, 7, 12, and 15. 


No. 

Judge of court of common pleas for each county. 


Yes. 

Article IV, section 9. 


No. 

Abolition of justices of the peace in certain cities. 


Yes. 

Article IV, section 21. 


No. 

Contempt proceedings and injunctions. 


Yes. 

Article V, section 1. 


No. 

Woman’s suffrage. 


Yes. 

Article V, section 1. 


No. 

Omitting word “white.” 


Yes. 

Article V, section 2. 


No. 

Use of voting machines. 


Yes. 

Article V, section 7. 


No. 

Primary elections. 


Yes. 

Article VI, section 3. 


No. 

Organization of boards of education. 


Yes. 

Article VI, section 4. 


No. 

Creating the office of superintendent of public instruction to replace 
State commissioner of common schools. 


Yes. 

Article VIII, section 1. 


No. 

To extend State bond limit to fifty million dollars for intercounty 

wagon roads. 


Yes. 

Article VIII, section 6. 


No. 

Regulating insurance. 


Yes. 

Article VIII, section 12. 


No. 

Abolishing board of public works. 








































































6 


A NEW CONSTITUTION FOR OHIO. 


32 

33 

34 

35 

36 

37 

38 

39 

40 

41 



Yes. 

Article XII, sections 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11. 

Taxation of State and municipal bonds, inheritances, incomes, 
franchises, and production of minerals. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article XIII, section 2. 

Regulation of corporations and sale of personal property. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article XIII, section 3. 

Double liability of bank stockholders and inspection of private 

banks. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article XV, section 2. 

Regulating State printing. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article XV, section 4. 

Eligibility of women to certain offices. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article XV, section 10. 

Civil service. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article XV, section 11. 

Out-door advertising. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article XVI, sections 1, 2, and 3. 

Methods of submitting amendments to the constitution. 


No. 


Yes. 

Article XVIII, sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14. 

Municipal home rule. 


No. 


Yes. 

Schedule of amendments. 


No. 


(Second column.) 

INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 

To vote for license to traffic in intoxicating liquors place a cross mark in the blank 
space to the left opposite the words: “For license to traffic in intoxicating liquors.” 

To vote against license to traffic in intoxicating liquors place a cross mark in the 
blank space to the left opposite the words: “Against license to traffic in intoxicating 
liquors.” 



For license to traffic in intoxicating liquors. 


Against license to traffic in intoxicating liquors. 

































































A NEW CONSTITUTION FOR OHIO. 


7 


I lie amendments in the first column of the ballot do not appear in 
the order of their importance. The sequence followed is the order 

m which the amendments will appear if incorporated in the constitu¬ 
tion. 

REORGANIZATION OF THE JUDICIARY. 

Eight of these amendments have to do with changes in court pro¬ 
cedure. They appear in different places on the ballot but constitute 
a distinct group and may be considered together. The ballot num¬ 
bers of these judiciary amendments are 1, 3, 4, 5, 15, 19, 20, and 21. 
This group represents an important part of the convention’s work. 
The aim was to cure the evil of the law’s delay, to dispel the fog of 
tradition and technicality, and to insure the boon of cheap and price¬ 
less justice for rich and poor alike. 

No. 1 authorizes a verdict in civil cases by a three-fourths vote of 
the jury. ' Rg 

No. 3 makes it less easy for the accused to thwart the ends of justice 
by a refusal to take the witness stand. 

No. 4 requires claims against the State to be tried in a court and 
not before the legislature, as at present. 

No. 5 forbids the legislature to put a price upon human life or to 
limit the damages that may be recovered in the case of death resulting 
from the wrongful act of another. 

No. 15 authorizes laws calculated to prevent the scandal of alleged 
experts being employed to testify for the side that pays them. 

No. 20 provides that each county shall have one resident common 
pleas judge, and permits the people of the smaller counties, if they 
so decide by referendum vote, to combine in one the common pleas 
and probate courts. 

No. 21 restricts the election of justices of the peace to townships in 
which no other court is maintained and confines the jurisdiction of 
each justice to the township in which he is elected. 

No. 19 is the amendment which provides for the reorganization of 
the judiciary. This amendment creates a chief justice to preside 
over the six judges of the supreme court. It creates courts of appeal 
to take the place of the present circuit courts. It provides that for all 
ordinary cases there shall be but one trial in the common, pleas court 
and one review in the court of appeals. Litigants can not be dragged 
on up to the supreme court as at present. Only certain classes of 
cases can be taken to the supreme court. All constitutional ques¬ 
tions maybe appealed to the highest tribunal. But it takes six of the 
seven judges to declare a law unconstitutional. Under court pro¬ 
cedure in Ohio a litigant is fortunate if his case is determined wdthin 
five years. Under the proposed reorganization of the court it is esti¬ 
mated that this time will be reduced to three years or less. The 
slogan of “One trial, one review” is destined to become popular in 
Ohio. In this era of high prices there is nothing more burdensome 
than the high cost of justice. There were great lawyers in Ohio’s 
fourth constitutional convention. Their work is proof that they 
were actuated bv motives of the highest patriotism, as the attorneys 
of all the people. 


8 


A NEW CONSTITUTION FOR OHIO. 


LABOR AMENDMENTS. 

There are five amendments that relate to the subject of labor. 

No. 10 clothes the legislative department of the State with ample 
power to pass whatever laws may be deemed necessary for the welfare 
of employees. All constitutional bars are removed. Anything may 
be done to protect workers even to the establishment of a minimum 
wage. This amendment does not presume to say what shall be done. 
It proposes to leave the people of the State free to deal with this 
gravest of problems according to their best judgment and experience. 

Hardly less important is No. 11. Under this amendment it will be 
possible, if at any time in the future it shall be thought desirable, to 
establish a compulsory system of insuring employees against injury, 
disease, and death arising from their occupations. 

No. 13 fixes the principle of the 8-hour day in the constitution by 
making it mandatory for all public work. 

No. 17 abolishes prison contract labor, but provides that all State 
institutions may be supplied by prison labor. 

No. 22 puts an end to the use of the injunction in labor disputes, 
except to preserve physical property from injury, and in all such 
cases the accused must, upon demand, be granted a trial by jury. 

Ohio’s constitution was framed 60 years ago. Since then an 
industrial revolution has taken place. Modern invention has resulted 
in marvelous wealth production. But we speed up our machines 
with too little regard for the workers. The conservation of humanity 
is the Nation’s first duty. The Republic is cheated if the child is 
robbed. The sacrifice of motherhood means the decay of the race. 
The care of the women and children is an imperative function of gov¬ 
ernment. It is hardly to be doubted that the people of Ohio will 
adopt these great labor amendments and thereby give humanity its 

rightful place as the chief concern of the State. 

> 

FIFTEEN MINOR AMENDMENTS. 

Of the 28 other amendments, 15 may be characterized as minor and 
the other 13 as major amendments, the latter involving disputed 
principles or policies of government, the former pertaining to matters 
about which there is little room for disagreement. 

In some instances the language of the Ohio constitution has been 
so construed as to prevent obviously proper legislation. Often these 
matters were not of sufficient importance to warrant an independent 
effort to amend the constitution. But it was the manifest duty of 
the constitutional convention, once in session, to remove these 
obstacles. For instance, the constitution stood in the way of laws 
to prevent a dishonest merchant from disposing of his merchandise 
overnight with intent to defraud his creditors. Amendment No. 33 
not only authorizes legislation of this character but embraces also the 
right of protecting the public against the sale of fraudulent stocks or 
other securities. 

The use of voting machines had been declared unconstitutional. 
Amendment No. 25 removes this inhibition. 

A question had been made of the constitutionality of appointing 
women to membership upon State boards or to positions having to 


A NEW CONSTITUTION FOR OHIO. 


9 


do with institutions involving the care of women and children. 
Amendment No. 36 sets this question at rest. 

I he guaranties ol the bill of rights had been quoted against the 
right ol the community to legislate on the subject of billboards. No. 
38 gives the city the right to be beautiful. 

The Ohio constitution restricts the right of voting to white male 
citizens. The word “white" is a curious obsolescence of ante-bellum 
days. No. 24 strikes this word out. 

No. 7 gives the general assembly certain rights to conduct investi¬ 
gations which had been declared unconstitutional. 

No. 8 corrects an error that was made by the legislature in formu¬ 
lating a governor’s veto amendment that was adopted in 1903. 

No. 9 gives constitutional authority for legislation providing for a 
lien upon buildings to protect mechanics and material men. 

No. 18 limits an extra session of a general assembly to legislation 
specifically stated in the call of the governor. 

No. 27 establishes the right of the people of a school district to 
determine by referendum vote the size and organization of their 
school board. 

No. 28 makes the State superintendent of schools a constitutional 
officer. 

No. 30 permits the State to insure in mutual insurance companies, 
a practice which was regarded as unconstitutional. 

No. 31 substitutes a superintendent in place of the present board 
of public works. 

No. 34 applies to all banking institutions the principle of double 
liability for stockholders and makes them all subject to inspection 
and regulation by the State. 

No. 35 authorizes the State to do its own printing, 

THIRTEEN MAJOR AMENDMENTS. 

It was concerning the 13 remaining amendments that the sharpest 
divisions occurred in the convention. It is upon these that public 
discussion will be chiefly centered. 

No. 2 provides for the abolition of capital punishment. 

No. 12 gives the State full authority to carry out projects for the 
conservation of its natural resources. 

No. 14 provides that, in addition to the impeachment proceedings 
of the constitution, laws may be passed establishing other means of 
removing, for cause and upon investigation, judges or other public 
servants. This amendment practically authorizes the recall, but 
leaves it to the people of the State to establish it by law or not, as 
they choose. 

No. 16 permits the establishment by law of the so-called Torrens 
land title guaranty system. 

No 23, if adopted, will give women equal voting rights with men 
after January 1, 1913. 

No. 26, if adopted, will make the direct primary mandatory for the 
nomination of all elective officers, except the officers of townships or 
of municipalities under 2,000 population. This amendment also 
provides for the direct election of all delegates to national political 
conventions and requires that each candidate shall have printed upon 


10 


A NEW CONSTITUTION FOE OHIO. 


the ballot, and below his name, his first and second choice for Presi¬ 
dent. 

No. 29 authorizes an issue of $10,000,000 in bonds each year for 
five years, an aggregate of fifty millions, for the construction and 
maintenance at State expense of intercounty wagon roads. 

No. 32 is the taxation amendment. A strenuous effort was made 
to provide in the constitution for the classification of property. This 
effort failed, however, and the proposed amendment adheres to the 
uniform rule whereby all property, notwithstanding its nature, must 
be assessed at its true value in money and taxed at the same rate. 
The debates of the convention clearly showed that in view of the 
conflicting interests there is not likely to be any satisfactory solution 
of the taxation question short of complete home rule. When State 
and local taxation are completely separated and each county is 
required to pay its ratable share toward the expense of the State, 
then one county can have no interest in the taxation system of 
another. Each county may then safely be permitted to adopt the 
system which it believes best calculated to promote justice and the 
general prosperity. 

No. 37 provides that laws shall be passed establishing the merit 
system of competitive examination for all appointive officers. 

No. 39 provoked little discussion in the convention. Nevertheless, 
it should be included with the major amendments. It provides a 
rational method of amending the constitution. Experience had- 
shown that it was practically impossible to amend the constitution of 
Ohio, by reason of the fact that all amendments were required to be 
submitted at the time of a regular election and to receive, if adopted, 
a majority of all votes cast at the election. No. 39 provides that 
amendments need only receive a majority of the votes cast directly 
upon them. 

We now have left three amendments, which, by common consent, 
are the most important to be voted upon at the special election. 

LIQUOR LICENSE. 

It is proposed to establish in Ohio a license system for the control - 
of the liquor traffic. At the top of the second column of the ballot, 
set off and apart from the rest, will appear this liquor-license amend¬ 
ment. What promised to be an irreconcilable division in the conven¬ 
tion ended most amicably. Both the liberals and those inclining to 
the principle of prohibition seemed to acquiesce in this amendment 
as a fair solution of the question and one which promises to receive 
a very large vote of approval at the polls. It will be difficult for the 
temperance forces of the State to oppose the measure, since the effect 
of it will be to close over 2,000 saloons. On the other hand, it is 
precisely what the liberals have been contending for, as the opera¬ 
tion of the system would bring the traffic under orderly control and 
free it from the abuses which have provoked interminable warfare 
and disturbed the business and peace of so many communities, 

HOME RULE FOR CITIES. 

No. 40 is the municipal-government amendment. It is second only 
to the initiative and referendum in importance. Its adoption will 
bring a great, peaceful, and beneficent revolution. It will set the 


A NEW CONSTITUTION FOR OHIO. 


11 


cities of Ohio free. Under it the people of any municipality may elect 
charter commissioners, frame and adopt their own form of govern¬ 
ment, and thereafter change it as they deem proper. They need no 
longer conform to a rigid, uniform system prescribed by the State leg¬ 
islature. The amendment leaves the State supreme in matters that 
are of general concern. The city will still be subject to the police 
power of the State and to any general laws concerning taxation and the 
power to incur debt; but within these reasonable limits the largest 
powers of local self-government are granted, including the power to buy 
or condemn and to own and operate any public utility. This means 
the end of a long and profitable alliance between corrupt politics and 
special-privilege corporations. It means the breaking up of a domi¬ 
nation of evil forces in city government. Under this amendment the 
cities of Ohio are sure to experience a new birth and attain to greater 
and vastly greater heights of commercial and moral grandeur. 

Before referring, finally, to No. 6, the initiative and referendum 
amendment, a word should be said concerning the schedule of amend¬ 
ments which appears as No. 41 upon the ballot. This is not an amend¬ 
ment proper. It contains merely the necessary provisions fixing the 
time when the amendments, if adopted, are to become effective. 

THE OPPORTUNITY OF OHIO PROGRESSIVES. 

The 3d of September, the day after Labor Day, this is the day for 
the special election when the people of Ohio are to pass upon the 
42 amendments to the State constitution. 

The people of Ohio have more at stake in this election than they 
have had in any election since the war. Their failure to ratify, at 
least the more important of these amendments, would be a most 
serious setback to the progressive movement in the State. It would 
be a blow to the progressive cause everywhere, for the eyes of the 
Nation will be upon Ohio. 

As to some of these proposed amendments the progressives them¬ 
selves are divided. But there is at least one amendment on which 
all real progressives are united. 

THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM. 


Faith in the initiative and referendum is the acid test of the pro¬ 
gressive. Ohio’s vote upon this amendment will be heralded far and 
wide. If it were defeated Wall Street would go into ecstasies of 
delight. If, on September 3, the initiative and referendum amend- 
meiTt is adopted by an impressive majority, the returns will come like 
the handwriting upon the wall to those who revel at the feast of 
privilege. A crushing victory in Ohio now for the initiative and 
referendum will win the East for the cause of popular government as 
the West has already been won. It will be the beginning of the end 
of the rule of big interests. It will be the full dawn at last of a real 

people’s government for the whole Nation. 

The time for action has now come. The men on the farms and m 
the factories and the mines, the merchants, teachers, doctors, and 
lawyers, all who earn an honest living by trying to render useful 
service to mankind, these are the men who must decide the issue 
on September 3, between the great busy people of Ohio who demand 


12 


A NEW CONSTITUTION FOR OHIO. 


only that government shall he administered in the interests of all, 
and those who conspire to pervert government and make it the means 
of cheating and robbing the public for their own aggrandizement. 

This is the time to settle the issue between the public welfare and 
arrogant private interests; between the Commonwealth and the 
wealth of privileged corporations. 

A SLOGAN FOR THE BATTLE. 

As for the outcome of this battle on the 3d of September, we have 
this to reassure us. The initiative and referendum has never vet 
been rejected by popular vote in any State in the Union. But we 
should not aim merely at a victory. What about the size of the 
victory? It should be decisive. It should be decisive enough to 
put every Bourbon battery out of commission. Here’s a slogan for 
the charge—“A half million majority for No. 6.” Whatever else 
we do let us seek out the initiative and referendum, which will be 
No. 6 on the ballot, and vote for that. Let us talk No. 6 from now 
until September 3. Let us volunteer to stand at the polls election 
morning when the bulk of the voting is done. Let us organize to see 
that the count is watched on election night. “A half million majority 
for No. 6.” With this slogan the rout of the enemy should be 
complete. 

There are but two questions involved. Are you in favor of 
popular government ? Is this initiative and referendum amendment, 
providing for popular government, a wise and fair measure? 

SHALL THE PEOPLE RULE? 

It is a waste of time to argue with the man who is against popular 
government. He ought to move out of America. There is no reason 
why he should glory in the memories of Lexington and Concord. 
What heart throb can he feel at the sight of the American flag ? The 
reading of the Declaration of Independence—what thrill of patriotism 
can that awaken in the breast of the un-American citizen who sneers at 
the principle of the initiative and referendum and boasts of his con¬ 
tempt for this doctrine of popular government which is the living 
spirit of all our American institutions ? 

Argument is wasted on such a man. Bury him with an avalanche 
of ballots on September 3. 

But there are those who believe in popular government and yet 
whose minds have been troubled by misrepresentations that have 
been made to them about this initiative-and-referendum amendment. 

Every such man can be won, because this initiative-and-referendum 
amendment is so fair that no one who understands it can possibly 
object to it if in his heart he really believes that the people should 
rule. We do not need to make converts to the doctrine of popular 
government. The American people were born into that faith. No 
power on earth could swerve them from it. 

A FAIR INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM. 

The only argument we need to make is to state in words of simple 
truth just what this initiative-and-referendum amendment actually 
provides. If the people understand precisely what this amendment 


A NEW CONSTITUTION FOR OHIO. 


13 


is, there is no more danger of their voting against it than there would 
be of their voting against the Declaration of Independence if that 
were No. 6 on the ballot, for the initiative and referendum is nothing 
more or less than the necessary provision for the application of the 
principle of the Declaration of Independence to political conditions in 
our time. 

Precisely what, then, does this initiative-and-referendum amend¬ 
ment provide ? 

THE REFERENDUM. 

First, as to the referendum. If a clique of politicians or a corpora¬ 
tion lobby bribes or bullies through the legislature a law which the 
people do not want, the people are given 90 days after the adjourn¬ 
ment of the legislature in which they may file a petition demanding 
a direct vote upon such a law. 

If 60,000 voters sign their names to these petitions, and if the 
signers of these petitions are distributed over at least half the counties 
of the State, then the law is thereby suspended until the people have 
a chance to pass their judgment upon it at the polls. This amendment 
does not provide for any special elections. Such voting must all be 
done at the time of regular elections. The operation of the law is 
suspended by the petition until the next regular fall election, at 
which time the people sav whether or not it shall go into effect. 

No one to-day has the hardihood to object to the referendum. If 
the people should be masters of the legislature, then the referendum 
is right beyond dispute. Tf the referendum is wrong, it is because 
legislatures should have a right to force unpopular laws upon an 
unwilling people. That horn of the dilemma is a hot poker which the 
boldest Bourbon will not touch. 

The enemies of popular government all sing low on the refer¬ 
endum. They have no courage to tackle that. But it appears 
that they are still blind and foolish enough to hope that they can 
persuade the people to vote against the initiative. 

THE INITIATIVE. 

What, then, is the initiative? The initiative involves the same 
principle as the referendum. The referendum is the right of the 
people to kill laws which the legislature has passed. The initiative 
is the right of the people to pass laws which the legislature has killed. 
Both are necessary if the people are to control their public servants. 

Of course it is always easy to knock down a straw man. Valid 
objections can be made, not against the principle of the initiative, 
but against the initiative amendments that have been proposed in 
some of the States. 

But let no man be persuaded to vote against the Ohio initiative 
because of the alleged defects of the initiative in Oregon or Okla¬ 
homa or some other State. For nowhere in America or in the 
world is there an initiative provision like the one proposed for Ohio. 
This amendment must be judged upon its own merits. Moreover, 
when this amendment is understood it will be seen that the stock 
arguments made against the initiative do not apply to it. ffhe 
Ohio initiative has been so framed as to remove every possible 
ground of objection. 


14 


A NEW CONSTITUTION FOE OHIO. 


This amendment provides that any group of citizens desiring a 
law may draft and print it in full upon petitions. If 3 per cent of 
the electors of the State, distributed over half the counties of the 
State, sign the petitions, the proposed law may then be filed with 
the secretary of state, who must formally present it to the legisla¬ 
ture. If the legislature passes it exactly as presented, then it is a 
law and that is the end of it, except that it is still subject to the 
referendum, like any other act of the legislature. 

If the legislature takes no action, then, by filing a petition of an 
additional 3 per cent of the electors, the measure can be placed on 
the ballot at the next regular election, to be voted upon by the 
people. 

If the legislature amends the measure and then passes it, the 
amendments may be good or bad. If the amendments are good and 
really improve the measure, its friends will be pleased and will have 
no motive to file a supplementary petition. But if the amend¬ 
ments are bad, the people have the right, by filing petitions signed 
by an additional 3 per cent of the electors, to require a popular vote 
upon the measure as originally petitioned for. 

If the legislature has added to the measure some amendments that 
are good and others that are bad, the measure may be printed upon 
the supplementary petitions with the good amendments incorporated 
and the bad ones omitted, so that the measure which goes to popular 
vote may have the benefit of any honest effort to improve it in the 
legislature, and yet may be protected against legislative trickery and 
bad faith. 

In the event that the legislature passes the measure in amended 
form and the people subsequently demand its submission and pass it, 
the act of the legislature becomes void and the law as adopted by the 
people prevails. 

All reasonable safeguards are incorporated in this initiative provi¬ 
sion guaranteeing the genuineness of signatures. Provision is made 
for the distribution to the voters of a pamphlet containing the text of 
all measures submitted to popular vote, together with arguments fur¬ 
nished by advocates and opponents. The educational value of this 
system is abundant justification for it. 

TACTICS OF THE ENEMY. 

The privileged interests made a futile effort to prevent the consti¬ 
tutional convention from submitting the initiative and referendum 
to the voters. 

They could not tell the people that they ought not to trust them¬ 
selves. Much less could they afford to be frank and say that they 
opposed the initiative and referendum because, by the initiative and 
referendum, the people could put an end to political corruption and 
corporation graft. They were therefore driven to a disingenuous 
attack. They collected money from public-service corporations and 
had boiler plate sent to the country editors in an attempt to make the 
farmers think that the initiative and referendum was being promoted 
for the purpose of securing the single tax upon land values. 

This argument was nothing short of an insult to the intelligence of 
Ohio farmers. Henry George and his followers were the first in this 
country to urge the adoption of the Australian ballot. There is no 


A NEW CONSTITUTION FOR OHIO. 


15 


more reason ior opposing the initiative and referendum because a few 
of those who believe in it are single taxers than there is to abolish the 
Australian ballot because Henry George favored it. 

But this argument was all the interests could think of. It was their 
last desperate attempt to prevent the inevitable. But the farmer 
members were not to be moved by such claptrap. So, when these 
interests saw that their attack had failed and that the initiative and 
referendum could not be defeated in the convention, they planned 
one final move. It was a cheap little lobbyist trick, but did not work. 

A TRICK THAT FAILED. 

With a blare of trumpets in the convention they offered an amend¬ 
ment to prevent using the initiative and referendum to secure the 
single tax. What they desired was that this amendment should be 
rejected so that they coidd go out from the convention to the farmers 
and conduct an anti single-tax campaign against the ratification of the 
initiative and referendum. But the friends of the initiative and refer¬ 
endum in the convention accepted this inhibition against the single 
tax and thereby wrested from the special interests the weapon they 
were forging. They can not now ask the farmers to vote against the 
initiative and referendum to prevent the single tax, for under this 
Ohio initiative it is not possible to pass a law establishing the single 
tax. 

How then are they going to fight ? In truth they seem to be in a 
bad way. But the people in this crisis should leave nothing to chance. 
A corrupt politician and a privilege-holding corporation hate the initi¬ 
ative and referendum as much as a bribe taker hates the dictograph or 
a thief daylight . That they will fight is certain. They never give up. 
The very fact that they seem so hopelessly defeated may be turned to 
their great advantage. Many a battle won has been lost because men 
laid down their arms prematurely to celebrate their victory. 

A CAUSE THAT IS GLORIOUS. 

The best news that the wires can flash on the night of September 3 
will be that Ohio has adopted the initiative and referendum by a 
majority of half a million. Until then let us fight, not foolishly but 
as men who know the power and resourcefulness of the enemy. For 
this is the greatest conflict in our time between the might of money 
and the enthusiasm for liberty; between the pride and power of a few 
of the Nation’s proprietors and the hopes and aspirations of the 
American people. 


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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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